Serrin Rutledge-Prior
Postdoctoral Fellow
Philosophy
Arts and Science
Education
PhD, BSc (ANU)
BA, DipLang (Adelaide)
Research Interests
Animal politics; animal ethics; political theory; history of political thought
About
Serrin began a Postdoctoral Fellowship in animal ethics in the Philosophy Department at Queen’s University in 2024. Here, she will primarily be working on a couple of research projects: one that explores how we can better recognise and respond to the agency of animals in interpersonal, political, and legal contexts, and another which seeks to acknowledge and reimagine the role of animals within the history of Western political thought. Beyond these topics, she is also interested the role of animal advocates in the public sphere, and when or whether civil – or even uncivil – disobedience on behalf of animals can be justified. Prior to coming to Queen’s, Serrin was a Visiting Researcher at the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law (2024), and a Research Fellow at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy (2023-24). She has also volunteered for several years with one of Australia’s first community legal centres dedicated to issues in animal law: the Animal Defenders Office, based in Canberra/Ngunnawal Country. Serrin’s first book, tentatively titled Multispecies Legality: Animals and the Foundation of Legal Inclusion, is under contract with Cambridge University Press. You can find out more about her research here: www.serrinrutledgeprior.com
Select Journal Articles
Addressing the will theory challenge to animal rights. 2024. Political Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217241253555
Political representation, the environment, and Edmund Burke: A re-reading of the Western canon through the lens of multispecies justice. 2024. European Journal of Political Theory. https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851241236055 (With Edmund Handby)
Vegans and “green-collared criminals”: The depoliticization of animal advocacy in public discourse. 2024. Polity 56(1): 91–117. https://doi.org/10.1086/727840
Criminalising (cubes of) truth: Animal advocacy, civil disobedience, and the politics of sight. 2022. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2022.2119522
Teaching
PHIL 296 Animals and Society